Hi guys, I’ve decided I want to sell this old nagauta with a hard leather case I bought for my first shamisen, and thought to come here for a bit of help.
The nagauta itself isn’t in perfect condition of course. The skin on the dou is synthetic and has an odd bump on the left edge of the front face.
The doukake is quite old and faded, with a tear in the top-right corner, but otherwise the design is quite nice.
The neo didn’t originally come included, but it’s a nice seafoam green with a tassle sure to catch the eye.
The sao is quite clean all things considered, and so is the tenjin.
The inside of the tenjin is missing zagane, and as you can see the itomaki are quite gnarled. Originally they were quite worn down when I first got it, so sanded them down quite heavily and messed with them a lot to get them to work, including once coating them with resin (which I then removed) and drilling new holes for the ito.
As for the case, it’s in good condition. Very few scratches, only noticeable ones are on the bottom of the case.
Two of the three latches are a bit rough. One of them takes a bit of force to put in place and the middle one is a bit raised.
The inside is a an odd dark orange color and made of some odd shag material. It also has a compartment in the middle with a key for the case also included.
I got no clue what value to offer this at. The case itself was sold for roughly $40 (I ended up paying around $200 after shipping and tax), and the shamisen was originally over $300 when I first purchased it, but that was with ito and a koma included, as well as the itomaki being in far better condition than now, so I’m unsure of the value now. I also have no clue what year it was made, but i’ve always thought it was somewhere between the 70’s and 90’s.
If anybody here has experience selling old shamisen and could help me put a price on this as well as find a good place to sell it, I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!